Banded
by SheerwaterPhoenix
Summary: Marina Brightwing - Banded, banished, chased, alone. Driven away by her own colony. Nearly killed herself in the ocean. This is the story of Marina, banded.
1. The Band and the Banishment

**Chapter One: The Band and the Banishment**

Marina was hunting along the river, going after a tiger moth, a good deal away from the others. Tonight was dedicated solely to hunting—the next night, the Brightwing colony would migrate back north to the nursery roost, the Great Oak, males and females both.

Almost . . . got it . . . , she thought. Few more inches. . . .

Marina cried out in alarm as she was suddenly hanging in midair, wings tangled up in . . . nothing? She couldn't see it, even with her echo vision. She flailed her wings, but the giant, invisible web held firm.

"Help!" she shouted, but she knew no one would hear her. She was too far away. "_Help!"_

Then the web began shaking. On one side of the river, two Humans, faces blazing with astoundingly bright light, were pulling on something, and the web was being drawn in toward them. Once Marina was drawn in, a Human extracted her from the net and pinned her wings to her sides with just its huge fingers.

What's going to happen to me? Marina thought. Are they going to eat me? Oh no. They're going to eat me, and this trap's like a spiderweb, they catch bats like spiders and eat them! She struggled as hard as she could, twisting, trying to bite through the tough hide covering their hands.

The Human holding Marina kept stroking her fur with a huge thumb—what was he trying to do? Wait . . . was he trying to calm her down? No! she yelled mentally. He's playing with you! He's trying to get you calm so he can eat you!

But they weren't eating her, she was fine. They weren't doing anything to her. Slowly she felt herself relaxing the slightest bit—until they brought out a strange container. What's in that thing! she wondered in fear.

"What're you—what're you doing?" Marina demanded. "Let me go!" she screamed, terrified. The Humans couldn't understand her, she thought. They were talking to each other in these awful, loud, deep voices like slow, rolling thunder. She couldn't grasp their words either.

She couldn't get out of this. There wasn't any hope. She was tiny compared to them, she felt the strength in their fingers along, able to crush her with ease if they wanted. She couldn't talk to them. She went slack, defeated, and the one holding her took hold of her right wing and stretched it out.

The other Human opened the container and took out a small piece of silver metal and clasped the band onto her forearm. Marina stared at it. What was it? she thought. It had strange Human markings on it that she couldn't even begin to decipher. What did they mean?

The Human holding her stroked the fur on her head and released her from his grasp. She flapped clear. Wait till the others hear about this! This hadn't ever happened to another bat before, huh? This had to be something special. . . . She knew it was very, very important, she just knew it. Marina glanced over her shoulder at the glowing silver band.

Amazing!

. . .

"Mom!" Marina shouted excitedly. "Dad!" She flipped upside down and roosted beside them, sticking out her forearm to reveal the shining band. "Look! I was hunting, and then I got stuck in this weird web thing, and some Humans came and—" She cut herself off as her mother, Selena, stared at the band and began to sob. Marina turned to her father, Cleon.

"Dad?" she asked, confused. "What's . . . what's wrong?" Her father had this hard, blank look on his face and didn't say anything for a long while.

"We're going to the elders' roost," Cleon said finally. Selena nodded mutely and the family of three flapped to the roost in the back of their colony's Hibernaculum.

Marina knew the three elders' names: Pavlos, the male elder, and Letitia and Cordelia, the female elders. She had never spoken to them, but she was always kind of scared of Letitia—she had this sharp, mistrustful look that made Marina feel uneasy.

"Cleon?" Pavlos asked.

He began to ask a question, but Cleon whispered, "Look at Marina's wing." The words were barely audible, but the elders heard. Their eyes were drawn to the metal band.

What were they so worried about? What was wrong with her band?

"Wh-what's going on?" Marina stammered. "What's wrong?"

Cordelia sighed. "The band is . . . cursed. All bats who are banded are killed by it. Marked by Humans—it is certain death. A banded bat brings bad luck to the colony."

"Not so many years ago, some bats of our colony were banded," said Pavlos. "Terrible things happened to them. They would burn alive, or . . . or have their wings rot. A few simply vanished."

"That band makes you unclean," Letitia said emotionlessly. "You cannot stay in this colony."

Selena burst into fresh tears at the news. Cleon wrapped her in his wings, but it did nothing to calm her. Sobs wracked her body and Marina could barely process what she had heard.

The band was cursed? But she had felt so happy, so excited about it! And even worse, she had to leave the colony? No, that couldn't be true! How could the elders . . . how could her own colony cast her out?

"You must leave our colony immediately," Pavlos decreed. "Before the bad luck infects the others. You may never return to us. Marina Brightwing, you are from here on banished from this colony."

Suddenly a strange rage she had never felt before entered her very being. She screamed, a long, terrible, wordless scream, filled with unending fury at what was happening to her. She whirled in fury and left the elders' roost like a storm.

How could they do this to her? Even her own parents didn't even try to do anything, they just hung there and cried! _Why would they do this to her!_


	2. The Chase and the Forest

** I'M BACK!**

** Chapter Two: The Chase and the Forest**

Marina careened through the forest, blinded by tears. She was so choked up she could hardly shoot out sound to see by. She flew, narrowly avoiding crashing into trees half-blinded. She flew until her wings were too useless and weak to move. Her rear claws sank into a rain-dampened branch and she hung there, sobs wracking her body. How could she . . . how could she live without her colony? Without her parents and friends and everyone else? They all just left her and hated her because of a stupid piece of metal!

She finally stopped weeping, but it was mostly only because she had used up all her tears. Her throat was raw and her head pounded painfully. She shuddered and at last closed her eyes just before an orange glimmer of light shone on the horizon.

. . .

The young Brightwing woke up freezing. Where was everyone? Why weren't her parents' wings wrapped around her against the algidity of early spring?

Then she felt the cold, sleek metal of the band on her forearm and remembered the night before. They all left her. Her entire colony.

Well, Marina thought bitterly, they can't get rid of me that easily! I'll follow them. Stay hidden. If they don't see me they can't stop me. She would follow them back to the Great Oak.

Marina flared her wings and let go of the cedar branch. She snapped up a few insects before setting out after the Brightwings. She was determined not to lose them.

She went unspotted for several hours. She wove around thick branches in an effort not to be seen and hid in deep crags of bark whenever she thought there might have been even the slightest chance that she had been glimpsed. She was growing more confident by the wingbeat that she would be able to make it all the way back to the summer roost—and this was her downfall.

So sure of herself, she had been less cautious. She was roosting in a clump of pine needles on the end of a branch, hoping that she appeared to be nothing more than a pinecone.

"Get out of here," growled a deep voice behind her. Marina was startled out of her roost and whirled around to face a three burly male Brightwings of her colony. "You're cursed. Get out before you get us all killed." Their eyes were hard and cold as ice and she knew that she had no chance of convincing them of anything. On the verge of more tears, she glared at them and flapped away from the colony. Only when she was far, far away did she let the tears loose once more.

She stared at the band, hating it. Hmm, if she ripped it off, she wouldn't be cursed anymore, would she? She could go back. Baring her fangs, she savagely attacked the shining metal. It didn't budge, she didn't even dent it. A growl built up in her throat. No . . . , she thought in despair, no! It has to come off! Why—wouldn't—it—_move!_

Marina took off and hunted. Those bugs that evening weren't very filling. With a ferocity born of anger at being abandoned, she was able to catch plenty.

. . .

The next night, she came across a colony of Graywings flying back north. Maybe they didn't know about the cursed bands! But as soon as she came near, it only took them one look at her for the entire colony to recoil. The newborns were pushed away from her and the adults formed a protective ring around them.

"Cursed one!" a female shrieked. "Get away! Banded! Freak!"

Everyone was staring at Marina with obvious fear in their eyes. Then they all turned tail and flew. Away from her. Away from the cursed, banded freak.

She met another colony or two, but they all knew about the curse of the Humans. Once, she managed to spend the day with a colony, folding her wings as she roosted just so to hide her band, but as soon as she spread her wings to fly they drove her off.

As she hit the coast, dawn was coming and the birds were beginning to sing. She took cover in a fir tree near a rocky beach from the owls. She couldn't die at the terrible claws of an owl.

The next evening, she thought. The next evening. That's when I'll end it all.


End file.
